There were other bits and bobs I wanted to include in random post of randomness but the sticky notes have fallen off my brain and gotten lost in the clutter of obscure trivia and strings of miscellaneous foreign words. Gone forever.

Apr. 15th, 2009

I'm back! Almost!

mood: exhausted

My last few days in London were a bit of a blur. On Monday, I had a great meet up with queenbarwench and she got to see me go crazy at HMV's easter sale ... but ... Doctor Who boxsets! Which I needed! Then yesterday Sarah and I spent 6 hours at the Tower of London. They had a fantastic exhibit of Henry VIII's armour over the years, so you could see exactly how big he was when he died. And he wasn't even that big, honestly -- there were lots of people standing around us who would not have fit into that armour. He must've been suffering from some other affliction to be so incapacitated.(And kabal42, I saw ravens! Lots of them -- some free, and some in cages at the Tower. You're right, they're huge!)

Now I'm struggling to stay awake -- I feel as exhausted as if I'd been climbing Everest, not just sitting on a plane for 7 hours! -- so I don't think I have the brainpower to tackle my flist with any coherency. Tomorrow I'll dive into that, along with the 500+ emails that've piled up in Outlook. But tonight, my only goal is to keep my eyes open for a few hours of The Tudors so I might be able to go to bed at a decent hour.

Apr. 6th, 2009

Whoever said Köln was friendly has never met the AWZ receptionist!

mood: grumpy

I left at an ungodly hour this morning to make my pilgrimage to my soap. By now I should know better than to trust googlemaps instructions, but they seemed so sure of themselves, and they said it was only 6 km, and it was a lovely morning, and...

Well.

You know how they put IKEAs out in the middle of nowhere? Well, the studios are just past that. I walked 12 klicks, easy, if not more. By the time I got there, I was exhausted but still determined. Ignoring the guard gate by acting like I was supposed to be there (and walking past when he was busy with a car), I went right up to Studio 52. I introduced myself, saying I was a Canadian fan of the show, to which the receptionist just grumbled disinterestedly. I gave her the fan letter (yeah, shup) that we wrote Dennis Grabosch, and gave her the chocolate bar I'd brought him from Ottawa (stupid, I know, but we figured he's more likely to get it sooner if there are sweets attached), and she said she would pass it on. Then I asked if I could take a photo of the AWZ sign behind her desk. Not an actor or anything! And she grumped that no that wasn't allowed. Hello! It's just a silly souvenir, you cow! It's not like I'm going to sell it -- your show's really not that good! Fortunately, just in time, I saw the postcards behind her desk, signed ones, and asked for three of DG. I should've asked for Julia and Ulrike as well, but she was getting snappy by then, so I didn't push it.

I bussed back into town, waiting for the bus behind the studio and hoping in vain that Dennis would've popped out for a smoke. (With my luck, grumpy lady would have sent out Mike or Stella instead.) It was awfully disappointing.

So I figured that I would cheer myself up by going to the chocolate museum. Except of course it's closed on Mondays. FAIL!

At this point, I'm abandoning all expectations for this city. I'm going to go grab some food at one of the cafes outside, and a kölsch because I do love those beers, and then just see what happens. If that means all I do is nap in the sun, then so be it!

Berlin, Copenhagen, and now Köln!

Mar. 30th, 2009

Berlin, Days 1 and 2

mood: sleepy

Sooooo much to write about today, but I'm not sure where even to start. I guess I'll start by saying that ( BERLIN IS AMAZING! )

But before I disappear, here's something fun:

I love my tiny fandom ... that after looking at this long list of nominations appears not to be so tiny after all! I totally spaced on nominating anybody since I didn't see the notice in time, but now it's time to read and vote! Go, little fandom, spread your wings and fly!!

Mar. 29th, 2009

Catching up: Last day in France

I so regret not taking more pictures here, especially of the WWI tank that looked so small and inefficient, what with its wooden ammo box on the side and its gun turret that looked like a rifle. (kabal42, did you take these?) paraka says I need to start taking pics like I did at Pierrefonds -- but she's got Munich covered, and we'll hopefully have an update of those soon. But that might take a bit -- we won't have Internet in our room in Berlin. :(

(But hopefully our room will have real beds -- for the past two nights, we've been sleeping on puffy orange marshmallows. I even fell off once, and that was before beer!)

And now it's time to pack and hit the road. Catch you on the flipside!

Mar. 28th, 2009

Pierrefonds pictures, at long last!

OK, I am completely, utterly in love with Germany. We spent yesterday at Neuschwanstein castle (which is breathtaking both in beauty and in the climb up its many stairs). Today we went on a walking tour of Munich before meeting the lovely dancing_serpant and her sister for coffee and yummy cakes. The people in Germany are so gorgeous and so nice, and we're such having an amazing time!

And I really should be posting my pictures from those places, but now that I've finally got free time AND Internet, it's Pierrefonds.

Mar. 19th, 2009

London Day 3

mood: sick

Ugh. I'm sick. I woke up this morning feeling like I didn't want to do anything other than roll over in bed, but then I got up and puttered around a bit and realised that taking the train to Chistlehurst wasn't really going to be all that strenuous. I'm so glad that I did.

Mar. 16th, 2009

AWZ: My favourite kind of crack

mood: nervous

music: Sparks - Sextown USA

I'd promised seanchaidh an update on my other obsession, Alles Was Zählt, and I wanted it to be a proper one to celebrate our posting of the crackiest episode yet (AWZ goes musical!!), but of course now I'm running out of time. So we'll just start with the basics.

For those who haven't been introduced to my favourite gay soap, here's the most important thing you need to know: ( Wallslamming is canon. )

And yes, watching AWZ obsessively is what gave me the ridiculous idea that I can speak German. Which I'm about to learn I really can't. My vocabulary consists of "asshole", "bitch", "Deniz is gay", and "I have no idea."

Don't mind me, I'm just going to be wondering around Munich saying "klar" and "super" to everyone. (Which is actually much better than I'll be in France, when I'll just be singing, "Je ne comprends pas, je suis canadienne.")

Speaking of, I have one hour before my taxi arrives, which for some reason I think will be best spent by unpacking and repacking my suitcase one more time. OMG I'M GOING TO MISS YOU GUYS!!!

Mar. 15th, 2009

I've been outwitted by a stapler

mood: busy

music: Bell X1 - Blows In

They do say staplers are very intelligent. This one is -- it has a button that you might *think* would open it, but no. It has ridges that you might be able to pull to open it, but they're too narrow for my fingers. Gack!

In other not-so-bright news, I was being all efficient and finished my taxes, Canada and U.S., and even took them to the mailbox tonight -- one less thing to do tomorrow. Except that I forgot to attach my cheque to the Canadian return. I figured out how to do it online, but it was still a big "Doh!" moment.

Nonetheless, I've gotten loads done today. Packing a month's wardrobe in a carry-on isn't easy, but takhys's brilliant plastic baggie method is letting me cram lots more in. I'll do the final culling tomorrow (obviously) but it now looks possible. I've got a bigger memory card for my camera, printed out my itinerary and all the stuff I'll need along the way, packed all my presents (save the bottle of rye I must pick up tomorrow), and my flashdrive's well-stocked with videos, fics to read, and fics to write. *groan*

I'd really hoped to contribute something to ides_of_march, but that was apparently a big part of yesterday's stress. (Staring paralysed at the computer, fearing that everyone will forget everything I've ever written if I don't post a fic before leaving, is not conducive to writing smut!) But there was some great stuff written today, including Silver Thaw, aldiara's latest chapter of "In This Home on Ice." It's wickedly hot -- and really, who doesn't love hypothermia fic? And then kabal42 wrote a great missing scene from "Valiant", The Wrong Helmet (which I want to type as "The Wrong Trousers" and omg that'd be a great crossover for the Black Knight), when I asked how Arthur reacted to Merlin's screw up. (Plus I just really like hanging out at Kabal's journal to look at the banner. I love that picture -- it was done by the BBC, with a smaller table than is used in the episode, and I just have such fun imagining what instructions the photographer gave to get them to look at each other like that.)

OK, puttering calls, must run. *smooches all around* I hope you all had fabulous weekends!

Feb. 5th, 2009

This is a good sign I think, yeah? Right?

The good news: I booked a reservation at the Le Régent Hotel in Villers Cotterêts, where the Merlin cast stayed last year while filming in Pierrefonds. Gorgeous hotel, and pricey, but I figured it'd be my big splurge -- and totally worth it if I had the slightest chance of leering like a deranged woman at Bradley James!!

The bad news: After booking, I realised that since the hotel only has 17 rooms, it probably meant that the show wouldn't be filming when I'm there (or that the cast was staying somewhere else), in which case I'd be in a fancy hotel with no Internet in a different town.

The good news: I just got an email that says "HOTEL FULLY BOOKED The hotel you chose is no longer available for the period requested because of an unexpected event."

The even better news: I booked a different hotel for half as much in Pierrefonds itself, with Internet, just across the lake from the castle. This might be my room!!!

I keep trying to tell myself that it's okay if they're not there when I am, that it'll still be lovely and all, and it will be. But ... but ... *gets all bouncygiddy again*

Jan. 25th, 2009

I can't believe I never thought of this before!

Busy busy day, much to do, real post later. Just had to squeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Also, while telling someone about my travel plans, I said I'd be going to Essen. I only now realised what I'd said, and that I'm in fact going to Köln, which isn't Essen but plays it on TV. *facepalms*)

Jan. 13th, 2009

THE trip

music: Sigur Rós - Vaka

OMG you guys, I've got my trip completely 99% booked!

I love travel planning, but it stresses me out quite a bit. I'm always afraid I'll book a train going the wrong direction, or a hotel for the night before I arrive, or some other confusion with dates. So for the last two days I've been checking everything and double-checking it and making spreadsheets and biting my nails, and now that's all done I'm staring at my schedule and thinking, "Holy crap, this is going to be a fantastic trip!"

* I do still have a bit of the nail-biting after booking my ferry/train from Amsterdam to London. I think I did it right, I know that I got the boat part, but I'm a little confused about where my train tickets are going to end up. Are there any Dutch folks on my f-list who might translate the confirmation page for me?

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In other not-so-great travel news, my dad is making noises about coming up to visit. Yikes! I thought he'd given up such crazy notions back in 2004 when we almost killed each other. Maybe I can tell him Canada's under quarantine or something...